A Midwinter Fantasy - Leanna Renee Hieber [96]
Sonja stared at him in silent horror for a few moments, then blinked as if waking up. “That doesn’t excuse the way Odin’s treated me.”
“Odin believes the sins of the fathers shall be visited on the children and grandchildren. He took revenge on Troy’s father, Loki. He also killed one of Troy’s brothers and condemned the other to spend the rest of his life in wolf form.”
Sonja’s eyes widened. “Wolf form?”
“Fenrir is a wolf shape-shifter. Odin trapped him in his animal form, so it wasn’t as strange as it sounds.”
Sonja flashed him an incredulous look that said his explanation was every bit as strange as it sounded. “What about my father?”
“Troy escaped with his life, but Odin took you and your mother away from him.” A memory he’d buried long ago crept into his mind: Troy as a young man before he came into his power, kneeling at Odin’s feet, begging him to return his wife and baby daughter. Vidar clamped down on the swell of anger the memory roused. Because he’d helped Troy and his family, Odin had punished his disloyalty with the curse of the slave ring.
“What happened to my mother?” Sonja asked, her voice barely a whisper.
Vidar shook his head. “She’s gone, Sonja.” He had never discovered what happened to Troy’s wife, but she was human and surely long dead.
Sonja looked down and rubbed distractedly at the creases in her trousers. Despite her calm appearance, Vidar sensed her churning emotions. Instinctively, he encircled her with his arms and eased her against his chest, offering physical comfort as naturally as he’d always soothed her mind.
“I survived,” she whispered.
He smoothed his hand down her silky blonde hair again and again, as if he could wipe away her pain and confusion. “Yes, you did, ástin mín.”
“So why didn’t I live with my father?”
His heart contracted at the tremor in her voice. “Your father loves you, Sonja. He would fall on his own sword if he thought it would protect you.” No lie. He’d watched Troy sacrifice his life for his child—only to discover that he couldn’t die.
“Really?” She raised uncertain eyes to him and he realized, with a crushing sense of sorrow, that she’d grown up without anyone to love her.
Except him.
The child he’d comforted and protected out of a sense of duty had grown into a woman. Along the way, his concern for her well-being had grown into love, a miracle for him in the dark cold land where he’d been bound against his will for centuries. But the pleasure only lasted a moment. It was his fault that Sonja was now condemned to live that same life.
He held her tightly, realizing he must tell her the complete truth of her past. Just not yet.
“So, how did you end up with my Magic Knot thingy?”
The trouble with telling half-truths was that the gaps had to be cemented with lies. “I wanted a way to check that you were safe, so I took your Magic Knot and formed a bond with you. That meant I could be with you in mind and spirit wherever you were.”
As her questioning blue gaze met his, he realized exactly what he’d revealed.
“We’re bonded in some way?”
“Yes, ástin mín.” And the bond of mind and spirit no longer satisfied him. His body yearned to make their link physical. He decided he would complete it by giving her his own Magic Knot.
But first, he would make love to her.
Chapter Seven
Vidar’s golden eyes flared with desire, his face a taut mask of control. Sonja’s heart tripped and raced. She splayed her hand on his chest, felt the flex of his muscles and the thud of his heart, while his hunger for her caressed her mind. She’d lived with this man in her head and her heart for as long as she could remember. Being with him now felt like the most natural thing in the world.
He lowered his mouth to hers and slowly brushed her lips with his own. Yet, even as he kissed her, she sensed doubt reining back his need.
Gripping his shoulders, she said, “This is what I want, Vidar.” From the moment he’d touched her Magic Knot and become her guardian angel, there could be no other man for her.
He